Monthly Archives: November 2013

In “How Long? How Far?” we began to wonder about the different ways we see space and time, and how those aspects of the observable universe come into being.

If the observable universe was in the thin expanding rubber surface of a balloon (as opposed to the boundary of our two-dimensional expanding droplet) then as the distance from its center increases, the distance between it’s galaxies would increase.

The radius or distance from the center, as in our droplet experiment, might represent time (complexity or entropic state) and the surface area of the balloon might represent space. What we discover as duration increases (air is blown into the balloon) the ability for the galaxies to interact with one another decreases. Energy density between galaxies decreases, so in order to maintain more complex systems (which require greater durations of sampling to survive) new languages using lower forms of energy must evolve.

An example of new languages among primitive information exchanges might be the difference in energy density between the language transfer of physical chemistry (subatomic particles), chemistry (molecular bonding), and organic chemistry (the much smaller van de Waal forces (energy/information exchanges) between macromolecules).

This brings up the problem of virtual verses real. Is our universe virtual or real? When a new language is born of a lower potential for information transfer in the observable universe, are the virtual symbolism and the original manifested components (what we call the real) connected?

Are our thoughts connected to what we consider real? Is the word “Love” connected to the feeling?

This wonderment leads to the comparison of the ideas of “virtual” with “real” and then the pursuit of any connection between the two.